Original subtitles

Hey, am I wrong, or do you even smell? That was

the idea, wasn't it? Let's see your answer.

Well, you could sand a board with him.

Try working your hands over with a hose for a month and see what happens.

Okay, the guy's name is Ivy. He's got four trucks. He loads at six in the morning.

Who, uh, Carrotfield is a couple of days' drive north of here.

Little town called Ducey.

There's only a scattering of farms. You'll send a truck to each.

Why'd you pick him? Something special?

Oh, a couple of reasons.

First, every migrant there will be under his control,

so I'll be concentrating on one man, just him, not 20.

Second?

Well, just let's say he excels at his profession.

Look, Jack, I mean it. Don't push him. Keep out of his way,

no matter what happens or how much he galls you.

Be inarticulate, ignorant. Don't even meet his eyes.

He figures you out.

You'll find yourself face down in a ditch with a busted-in head.

When do you show?

Ten days from tomorrow. You'll have enough by then to get me started.

And how do I reach you? I'll be at the Ducey Hotel.

It's the only one they've got in town.

The first contact will be up to you. Make it sometime after seven, okay?

And here.

Buy yourself a decent meal. Be the last one you'll eat for quite a while.

$10 a day clear for everybody that climbs up beside me on the truck.

Folks, we're heading to God's green country, the Lord's own harvest.

I gotta have good papers, my friends, because I pay the highest wages, $12.50 a day.

Not only that, good housing, my friends, and inside plumbing. Hot Ivy's the name,

and I got top pay for good hands and free beer on Sunday.

The clean housing, hot showers, and meet three times

a week. Tell them, Ab, three times a week.

And I pay 15 bucks a day.

And if you hear it from me, that's what you get.

Because I'm one of you folks.

I got the dirt of the fields running in my veins.

Why stoop for sugar beets, carrots, strawberries, beans?

And I'm here before you.

As living proof what a man can earn if he's not afraid to work.

I want good hands who won't take advantage.

I've got three more trucks up ahead here.

What do you say, folks? Shall we fill them up? Come on. Come on, folks.

Fill them up. Their pitch sounds great. Money you never believed you could make.

A good, clean life in the sun. It's a world of plenty.

There are no promises and none to come true.

Not for these people.

For them, the half million migrant farm workers of America, there is no rainbow.

Only heartbreak, lies, and exploitation.

Victims of a permanent disaster.

Helpless prey for the corruptors. Let's move along here. Come on, follow me,

right this way. Fifteen, fifteen bucks a day, folks.

That's just an average. If you want to push a little harder,

you'll make a little more.

Let's go.

Come on, folks. Fill up those ones in front. In you go.

Well, there she is. Isn't she a pretty one? Yeah, that's right. In you go.

In you go.

No good, old man. Back out. Oh, please, no. Please, mister.

I'm good.

I had a farm myself once. There ain't no crop I don't know. Next year.

I work for half pay. You couldn't even earn your keep.

Back out.

Hey, you.

What's your name? I can't hear it.

Hollister. Where'd you work last year?

Michigan.

What crop?

Beaches.

When?

August.

Let me see your hands.

You all loaded?

All loaded.

OK, then, move out.

Always a cold.

How's Alistair?

Alistair.

Alistair. Garcia.

You have been north to the fields before? This is my first time, you know.

I used to work in a farm in Hueco.

Ten years.

This is where my two boys was born.

Ten years.

And then they come, the machines.

You know, they do things I never see done before in my life. You don't believe.

They can do the work in one day of ten men in one week.

I don't know nothing about machines, so I go north.

But not for nothing.

There's a little piece of land just outside of Waco. $500 down is mine.

You hungry? Hungry, huh? I know you're hungry.

But don't worry. Pretty soon we are going to stop. We are going to stop for food.

We could be stopping for food very soon, Billy Joe.

What do you figure you're going to have?

Well, steak.

Steak, that's what I want to have. Are you stupid or something? I always have steak.

How are you going to have that steak, Billy Joe?

Well, I like my steak rare.

I like it with a little mashed potatoes and gravy

and some coffee and cream sugar and things.

Where is the joke?

You tell him there's a joke.

Well, you're on the express, buddy.

We go straight on through, we don't stop for nothing, except gas.

Without food?

That's 800 miles.

It's nine.

By tomorrow, this time, you are going to have all the food you can eat.

The beds, clean sheets, warm blankets.

All this, tomorrow.

Amen.

The United States government requires by law that livestock

be transported under safe and sanitary conditions.

It also annually appropriates hundreds of thousands of dollars

to provide rest areas for migratory birds in transit.

Yet only six out of 50 states have any laws at all

governing the transportation of migrant workers. 44 have none at all.

Help the girls out there. Over here. Over here.

Come on out.

Get all those things out of there, folks.

All right, Sonny. Move over there. That's right. Go on, boy.

All right, Pop.

Over here. Come on. Keep moving.

Come on.

All right, move around in there.

All right, folks, now let's see. We got about 40. All right,

break them up and put 10 in each shack.

You folks get settled. I'll take care of your food.

I don't want any cooking in there.

Shacks will go up like paper. Anybody needs any water,

it's right back there in that bucket.

You need some fresh water, just turn on the spigot.

Howdy, Mr. Pitts. Claude Ivey.

I don't understand.

You weren't supposed to be here for three weeks. I made that clear on the phone.

How about you hash me up a mess of fresh eggs, Mr. Pitts?

I ain't had nothing to eat for the last couple of days

except some stale sandwiches and a bottle of warm beer.

Can I have some more coffee, please, ma'am?

It's that I just don't understand why you brought them here so early.

I talked with you last Sunday.

Just last Sunday, I told you the crop wouldn't be ready to pick for three weeks.

You worry about your crop, Mr. Pitts. I worry about my people.

It's just that I don't like having them around here

one minute longer than is absolutely necessary.

They're dirty, and they steal. Last year, they stole 10 chickens from me. Now,

I'm not a wealthy man. I've earned what I've got.

Now, why do they do things like that? All right.

Yeah, it's understood.

You'll supervise the workers. Yourself, you'll do that. Yep.

You've got the other four farms around here too, haven't you?

Yeah, but I'll be here full time to supervise this job,

except for maybe an hour a day when I go to check on the others.

Supervise, check, load, haul to the grader.

I may need another truck for Harlem.

I'll get you that. And a trailer.

A trailer?

For what?

Well, you don't think I'm going to live in that pigsty you got down there, do you?

All right, all right. OK, you'll get a trailer.

All I want from you is a guarantee that my fields

are cleared in four weeks, once you start picking.

Those carrots start to rot. Nothing rots, Mr. Pitts. All right, good.

Then it's understood.

Pick through hauling, you'll have the care of the workers,

their feed, their pay, and so on. $40 an acre.

You said $40.

We agreed on the phone.

Did we mention price?

You know we did.

Well, now, if you say so, Mr. Pitts, that's the way it must be.

It's there to call you a liar.

Me?

Which, of course, I wouldn't do.

But it's just that I don't see how we could have misunderstood each other. I mean,

$40 an acre, I gotta be losing money.

Price is what they are.

Their transportation, their feeding, their housing.

I give you the housing for nothing. You know that.

Well, even with that, Mr. Pitts, at $50 an acre, I'm just breaking even.

But one thing I hate to see is an unhappy employer.

Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. We've got a contract.

Where?

Now, wait.

Fifty dollars an acre, I'll have no profit.

I'm sure you can find someone at your price, Mr. Pitts. You know I can't.

Not just before picking, why it takes months to set you people up.

I'll tell you what we'll do, Mr. Pitts. I figure it's about 2 a.m.

now.

Let's say we meet at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.

Fifty dollars an acre.

Cold hard cash and a trailer.

Oh, ma'am, seeing as how you're just resting,

how about boiling up a mess of soup for my people? Well, nothing fancy,

just throwing a potato, a cup of carrots, and I'll have all my meals here.

Good night, Mr. Peart.

Evening.

Completed your reservation for me, Paul Moreno.

Oh, you're the fellow wired in ten days ago. That's right.

Roam with a phone and a bath, wasn't it? That's right.

First, you're right at the top of the stairs. I'd

help you with the bags there, but I got this leg.

Oh, that's all right.

Oh, by the way, there hasn't been a call from me, has there? Nope, no call. Well,

I'm expecting one. I'll put her right through.

I think about it.

Knock it off!

I said knock it off!

Now listen, you heard me, Brown. I said knock it off!

Don't you ever lay a hand on me.

Never!

Push in front of me in the food line there.

Run, Larry! Stop it! Get up.

All right, get on your feet.

Get on your feet!

Get on your feet! Get on your feet while you've still got them to stand on!

That's gonna cost you one day's pay, boy. Both of you.

What pay, you vulture?

No, no, he don't mean that. He don't know what he's saying, boss. Oh, I mean it.

I mean it. We ran a stinking hole but ten days of no work.

Why are we out in the fields picking, huh?

That's gonna be two days' pay, boy.

And any more lip, it's gonna be three.

All right, now let's get this place cleaned up.

Come on!

So there we sit, ten days, no work.

Why'd he bring you up so early? You tell me. Can you get out again tomorrow night?

There's a lot of milling around in the camp from about 10 on.

I can slip out around then, I think. Well, make it 11.

But not here.

There's no other place to phone you.

There's a stone bridge about a half a mile out.

Yeah, I'll pass it coming in. I'll pick you up there.

All right.

Jack, you've done a good job.

I've got more than enough for a start.

But be careful.

This place is going up like a rolling torch tomorrow.

Well, yes, Ellie, of course.

Oh, I don't know what to say. It's just terrible.

I can't understand all these things he's been saying about us.

Just listen to this. In many months of investigation throughout the country,

the condition at Pitt's farm appears to be typical.

Well, of course, nobody's ever made trouble for us before, I can't understand.

And there's more, there's more, just listen to this.

Brought to Ducey in open trucks like livestock on the way to a slaughterhouse,

the migrants now sit, ten days after their arrival, still not working,

earning no wages, living in degradation and filth beyond human insurance.

You crazy or something? What are you trying to do? Me? Yeah,

the worst single evil facing the migrant is the crew leader who

cheats and exploits the worker with every trick in the book.

Who is that? I don't want to talk to anybody. No more news.

Particularly masterful artist of this trade is one Claude Ivey.

You got a big mouth.

I don't know what you're talking about. Who is it? It's another newspaper.

I want to know who gave it to him.

No.

My name.

My name, Ivey. My name. Like it was a filth. Like it was something vile.

My name.

Take that thing off of the hook.

He didn't pull this out of a hat. At night, a child cries endlessly in its crib,

a cardboard vegetable carton.

Oh, no.

Yeah, now there they are, names, details. Who gave it to him?

Where do you think you're going? I'm going to see him.

Say who? The guy who wrote this mess. Marino's here? Oh, yes.

Marino's here. He's at the hotel. There's a meeting with him.

What do you think you're going to tell him? In 60 minutes, Ivy. No less.

In 30 minutes. I want your people working.

I want them out there working before they get some fool notion

from this trash that maybe they shouldn't do any work at all,

because you know what it means if that happens, don't you?

It means that I'll be wiped out.

Larry, we can't harvest. Now we won't be ready for another week.

I want you to start them in the southwest quarter.

Well, will you move it?

All right!

Larry, what are you going to tell him?

I'll give him out there coming in here with his...

Running all over my place like a pollution, living

off me, living off my land, feeding off of me.

Ten days he's been out there and not one single lick of work. Well,

this is the end. This is the end of his bleeding, his thieving, his cheating.

That's what I'm going to tell Marino.

Who's really exploited in this thing is me.

He always had a cold. Maybe it's because of his cold. Maybe something he ate.

All right, everybody out.

All right, come on, out, out, out. Let's move.

Come on, everybody out. Get him up there. Come on.

Come on, get him up. Come on, everybody out.

Come on!

All right, come on, move in here.

Get around, get around.

Get in close. I ain't got any mind to shout.

Get in close. Come on. Excuse me, sir.

My son, I think he is not feeling too good.

Later, Rodriguez, later.

All right, move in. Me, Miss Garcia, senor. My son, you see, when I touch him,

he's very hot. Will you fill in around here?

Pneumonia.

Are you feeding him a varied diet?

I don't know.

I think maybe.

He'll be all right as soon as he gets used to the climate. All right, now, folks,

we're going to go to work!

It's going to be a big push. Those cows are going to be up and out in four weeks.

You get paid every Sunday $4.20 a day.

Now we start... $4.20?

Did you say something?

Oh, yeah, it's, uh, it's kind of rough about that.

I, uh, been chewing him half the morning about it. No good. He won't budge.

Says, uh, carrot prices are down.

So it's out of my own pocket if it's that high.

Senor, you promised 15. I don't work for nobody for 420.

Say, say, say, there's no law says you got to.

It's all right. You pay what you owe me. Let's

see, in your family, what, four? Four.

Four, yeah. Well, let's say you owe me $75. You pay me, then you can go. I owe $75.

I owe nothing.

Food and lodging, what do you think that is, for free?

You know what I have to pay that sodbuster for those shacks? $15 per head a week.

I got nothing.

I got nothing.

You can work it off.

You got two kids, I'll pay them a buck a head.

Just work it off and pay me.

Now, we'll start up here. Hey, you!

Where do you think you're going, huh?

You go into town, those cops catch you, they'll beat you half to death.

And if they don't do the job, I'll come into town myself.

Now, we start up at the northwest end and work down.

I'll put the crates in the truck and bring them up.

Who saw that?

I had a long, hard day today. I said, hold to that!

Which quarter was that you said, boss?

Southeast or west?

All right.

What's more?

It ain't right.

You can't treat people like that.

You ain't gonna treat me like that.

I get my own, buddy. I get my own.

How, Billy Joe?

It's OK, Sipsic. I got my ways.

Mr. Pitts, I came here last summer. You remember it.

I wanted to talk to you, but...

I wrote to you. You never answered my letters, not one.

Now you say you want to talk, but you say nothing.

We go over and over and over the same thing for six solid hours.

I've heard.

Heard, but not listened.

You tell him, Max. My mind's all gone sick. It's like I've been in a world.

Miss Marino, let me ask you something. I've been working my farm for 31 years.

I pay my taxes, I mind the law, I give to the church and charity.

In the spring, I plow and plant. In the summer, I harvest.

Autumn, I fertilize. Come winter...

I got maybe a profit of $10,000 if I'm lucky.

Now, does that make me a national disgrace?

An example of it.

How? You know, wait.

Wait, maybe he's right.

Maybe there is something we're doing wrong. No, nothing.

Well, I don't say yes. I just say maybe.

We're reasonable men.

You want to talk? All right, we'll talk, but later.

After the harvest, when it's finished. Now, wait a minute, listen.

When?

All we ask you to do is stop writing those articles for just six weeks.

Is that so much? Yes, I think it is. Marino,

you don't understand what'll happen to all of us here if Ivy pulls his people out.

Those cars don't get picked, we are wiped out.

You can plead with him if you want to, but not me.

This man acts like I'm some sort of filth,

like I'm a part of this thing that I add to it.

I want to know how. Forty people sitting there for ten days, no work, no pay,

browbeaten from morning to night by Ivy, living in, well, not living,

existing in miserable houses.

Always we go back to that. The housing. Well,

you're the one who has to go over this again, not me. Well,

we tried to explain to you, but you won't understand.

These people are not like us, Mr. Marino. Go out there and take a look at them.

Miserable, shiftless animals.

Ten years ago, Mr. Pitts, 50% of the migratory workers in this country,

half the people you've got on your farm this minute, had steady,

productive jobs with decent food and housing,

which they maintained in dignity as human beings, not animals.

Mechanization has made them jobless, yes, but not shiftless.

I've got as much regard for human dignity as anybody else.

Have your pits.

What?

And you too, Mac. Are you just busting over with human regard?

How did you vote last spring on that referendum calling

for the formation of a committee on migratory workers,

on crew leader regulations, on transportation of workers to and from the farms,

on housing regulations, and a child labor law?

What are you trying to say?

He isn't writing those articles. We're writing them for him.

And I say that everything he's trying to do is right.

Thirty cents out of every dollar I pay, Ivy, goes for the welfare of his workers.

And how much of that money do you think Ivy ever turns over for welfare?

He's our problem? He's our problem.

We didn't invent him.

We invented him. The crew leaders and the whole rotten system.

To avoid the one thing that we fear most.

Mr. Marino, I'm not alone in this.

There are a lot of farmers that feel the same way that I do.

We're just a little frightened to speak out, that's all.

But I want you to know I think what you're doing is right,

and I'll be at home if you need me.

Every year, I hock my shirt at the bank.

I gamble everything that the weather will be good. There won't be a drought,

and the prices will hold.

When my crop is ready, it's got to be harvested. Then, that minute, no delays.

You got any idea what a strike at harvest would mean to me?

I've never said that unionization was the solution. I'm not saying so now.

It's merely one that's been suggested. There are others.

Maybe a hiring hall is the answer, or a farm bureau.

Maybe control belongs in the hands of the government

on a state or federal basis. I don't know.

But I'll tell you this.

Until you break the crew leader's control... Mr. Marino!

I am just a little guy, a nobody.

I don't have the power to break controls. Neither does Macker nor Jepson.

Have you ever tried to, Mr. Hudson?

No.

Instead, you've turned to men like Ivy to protect you against it.

A voracious, insatiable animal.

Without the slightest regard for human life or values.

Who prowls your land unchecked, devouring you and your workers alike.

You give them a couple of more years,

there won't be anything left for you to protect.

You don't believe me, do you?

You think you're caught between two hells, and the one you've got is the better one.

Please, just go away.

I'm sorry. Not till it's all been told.

But I'll leave you with this parting thought.

Those people out there on your farms, right now, they're still people.

But you keep treating them like animals long enough,

that's just what they'll become.

Have you ever seen a cornered animal fight

¶¶

I had singled out Ducey by chance, without particular malice.

Knowing the corruption as it existed here was typical.

My hope was to focus the eyes of the nation onto this

tiny, isolated community, making of it an example.

At the same time, relating it to similar evils that were occurring elsewhere.

I determined to be relentless, hoping by my attack to pique the national conscience.

And on the morning after my opening article, following another call from Flood,

the second installment of my expose reached Ducey.

Reno charges migrant exploited by Deloitte trick.

Promised $15 a day by Crulito and paid $14.

How, Em, how? That's the exact figure. Who gave it to him?

It's got to be somebody from here.

Over in my place, maybe? No, no, no, no, it's here,

because everything you wrote about happened here in this camp.

It's my big mistake, 420 a day. I should have made it three. Who's letting out?

I got my eye on them all day. It's got to be somebody at night.

Who?

Hey, Sepsic. Come here.

I was just getting some water for my cough, boss.

I'm going right back to the field. Oh, forget about the field.

It ain't going to run off.

Come on in. Take 10. In there?

Sure. Come on.

Hey, Sepsic, you like sour mash, don't you?

Yeah, I'm sure. Come on in.

Close the door.

Where's that sour mash? Here we are.

Sit down. Sit down, boy.

Say, that's a pretty mean cough you got there.

Ask me, it's consumption.

What do you say, Adam? That's a mean, solid cough.

Yeah, if I had a cough that bad, I'd go to a hospital under doctor's care.

Well, I... What say, Brian?

I haven't got time.

I mean, I can't afford it. I ain't got any money.

I had a fellow working under me a couple years ago. Remember that young fellow, Ann?

Why don't we bury him? Please.

All right, no more questions about that.

Just one little fact.

I didn't see you through the rock.

I'd tell you if I knew... Not the rock!

There's a fella, Sepsyk.

He's been saying some pretty fool things about me.

It's been in the newspapers the last couple of days.

Somebody's been giving it to him.

Who?

Who's been sneaking out after dark, huh?

Who is it?

I don't know. You know, those shacks are just like a regular beehive at night.

Everybody going in and coming out and stealing

carrots out of the fields and chickens.

Yeah, you're as thick as these, all of you.

Well, who's the ones been sneaking out at night, huh?

Who is it?

You know. I can tell by your face, you know.

Sepsic?

Here's a hundred bucks.

Twenty now, and the rest when we get him.

Oh, no, I... His name, Sepsic.

It's the difference between whether you live or die.

Hold him.

Hold him.

Hold him.

Let him up.

That's only half of what you're going to get.

Up!

Well, let's get out of here.

Todd that did it, I mean, he probably welched on a better.

Got mixed up with somebody's girlfriend.

They got their own laws.

With a bunch like this, what can you expect?

Who was it found him?

I did.

At daybreak this morning down at the pond.

First, I thought he'd got drunk and fallen in.

Now, wait a minute.

Wait till I get all this down. Marino.

Some things we respect around here, Mr. Marino. Such

as? Private property, and you're on it.

Get off.

Let him stay.

It's my farm. Let him stay.

Okay, boys.

What's the matter, Marino?

Are you a friend of yours?

Should he be?

If you get lonely, I mean, now that you've got nobody to talk to,

why don't you drop over and see me?

I don't suppose anybody heard anything last night?

Sound, a cry?

I had a pretty tough day. I slept like a log.

Well, I guess I better take another look at the pond.

For all the good it'll do us. Come on, Mr. Pitts.

Jack.

The boy was supposed to be me.

Get hold of yourself.

Ivy thought Billy Joe was the one that was sneaking out of here, feeding it to you.

I know that.

And you didn't tell him?

The cop? What good would it do? He'd already turned his back on it. You saw it.

He's only interested in the police. You or me,

we'd tell him. Listen to me. Let go of me!

The police are just as dependent on Ivy as Pitts is.

That's why they're whitewashing this thing.

If that crop isn't picked, Pitts goes under. He goes under, the town goes with him.

The town goes under the police and their jobs.

That boy who was murdered, Paul, isn't that something to you?

Will you listen to what I'm going to tell you? No! No!

But, Carl, I'm only that. That's all that matters to you in this.

Blow the whistle and I'll get this over. Nothing more to write about.

No more headlines. Get off it!

Tim.

I might have known.

Oh, just a minute, Miranda.

Just a minute.

They call you a painful animal. Where do you think you're going from here, huh?

Gonna write some more articles, maybe? Well, you go ahead and write them.

Go ahead, tell them everything you see.

Tell them about the death and the filth and the misery.

Tell them about these duck sheds that even ducks wouldn't live in. You tell them,

Moreno, and you know who's gonna care?

No one. Not a whistle or a lick. Because what's to care?

Don't you turn your back on me like I was dirt.

I'm somebody.

I made myself somebody. I pulled myself up out of this filth,

this filth all around you. Look at it.

I was born to it.

Yes, a boss man. No, it's a boss man.

That's since I was six working alongside of my daddy in the fields.

Until he run off.

Then I was on my own at 10.

You, boy, pull them beats.

Hey, boy, suck that corn. Who told you you could go to a drink of water?

You get back on that rolling stool.

That until all the feeling was just burned out of me.

Well, I learned one thing, Marino. There's only two kinds,

them that stoop and those that tell them where. Well, I've been there once,

and ain't nobody. Now, Pitts,

the law of you is going to get me back on my knees again.

Four years ago, I was on a farm, me and my boy.

Come down to that farm, waited around for three weeks.

Three weeks.

Eating one meal a day. Boy went blind.

He got weak.

He lost all his strength.

He was blind for three days.

I called the police.

And I asked them, I said, I want you to take a look at my boy.

He's blind.

Police acts as flies, he said.

What happened?

That's all he said.

What happened?

Come on. It's all over. Let's go.

Out. Nothing to see.

Come on, ladies, let's go. Come on, come on, come on.

Let's break it up.

Nothing to see. It's all over.

Let's go.

Go on.

What are you standing there for? What's so interesting?

What's so special to look at?

I never saw a bunch like you before. What's the matter with you?

A bunch of ghouls or something? Move on. Break it up.

What's the matter? Haven't you got any respect?

Why don't you leave the man in peace?

Come on, move along.

You heard the man tell me himself his kid was sick. I've never seen a...

Marino, I wonder if you could meet with us tonight.

Myself and the others.

What you said before at the hotel.

Nothing more to say, Mr. Pitts.

You've heard it all.

Heard, but not listened.

There is no greater ill plaguing our agriculture today than the crew leader.

This corrupt control over a half million Americans must be destroyed, and it can be.

But only if we care enough to think they matter.